by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Today, we’re going to rank some legendaries.

…and we all know nothing creates a more spirited debate than when you apply a ranking system to something.  Look at any sports-related power ranking post (and, especially, the comments) for further proof of this statement.

My original intention when starting this effort was to do a comprehensive look at each and every legendary card available in the game right now, including class legendaries, ranking purely based on competitive play and the current metagame.  This means that these will have nothing to do with how “fun” a card is (meaning Elder Tauren Chieftain gets no extra brownie points).

While I always intended on doing a separate article ranking the current state of class legendaries separately (hint hint, check back tomorrow for something that may or may not be related to this…), I quickly realized that there are about 15(ish) viable neutral legendaries worth considering and ranking.  Basically, once I got to the bottom, which do you rank lower: Gelbin Mekkatorque or Lorewalker Cho?  How about Elder Tauren Chieftain?

And then the burning question: what’s better?  Captain Greenskin or Malygos?

Once I realized that I had probably jumped in a bit too far, I dialed it back to just doing a top ten ranking.  I did finish the numbers for a complete ranking, so if you guys are interested in seeing the complete list, let me know in the comments.

Quick note: I’m going to wait until the end to cover my rating/ranking methodology (I did this all using a rating system instead of a biased subjective view, though obviously I can’t cut all subjectivity out) so that we can get straight into the ranks and analysis.

So now, without further ado:

Top 10 Legendary Cards for February 2014

In the interest of brevity, I’m only going to cover the top five in depth.  If you have questions that I don’t cover, by all means, ask away in the comments.

When I first started branching into midrange and control decks, I didn’t have the legendary cards to pull it off.  I had Cairne, Bloodmage Thalnos, and The Black Knight that I could use in my Druid Midrange deck, but every time I’d come across a mirror match, the game would inevitably be decided by some game-ending, spectacular legendary that I simply had no comparison to, power-level wise.

The thing is, when you play anything other than an aggro deck and you see a midrange or control deck, you are going to hit the late game every single time and, when this happens, legendaries tend to take games over.  If you want to play a slower deck, therefore, you need to have a game-ending threat to get you across the finish line.

Back to my initial Druid foray: absolutely nothing I did or crafted improved my winning percentage as much as crafting (and adding) Ragnaros to my Druid deck.  It wasn’t so much that the Firelord was an auto-win card, but it gave me something that I could gameplan around and work towards: playing Ragnaros onto a relatively clean board.  Once I had an endgame that I could work towards, games started coalescing much better than before.

Basically, the reason Ragnaros is #1 is that it:

a. goes in almost any deck; and
b. ends the game on its own.

Right now, the metagame consists of mostly Druid Midrange/Ancient Watcher, Warrior Control, Shaman Midrange, Miracle Rogue, Hunter Faceroll and Murlocs. (There are other decks that show up, especially at different ranks, but this is what I’ve been seeing.)  Against the majority of those decks (Murlocs and Hunter Faceroll notwithstanding), Ragnaros is simply the best thing you could be doing.  Thus, Ragnaros takes the top spot this go-around.

For those out there who completely hate everything “aggro” without even so much as a reason past “It’s dumb and I hate it!“, this may disturb you: Leeroy came in just 0.05 points below Ragnaros on my 10 point scale.  It was that close.  And yes, it deserves to be that close.

Leeroy Jenkins does stuff in Hearthstone that no other card is capable of doing.  For the most part, it acts as a neutral Fireball that’s used to finish off an aggro deck’s opponent.  However, the fact that even midrange and some control decks run Leeroy should tell you all you need to know about the power level of this card.

Rogue decks can one shot people from about 20 health through Shadowstep shenanigans.  Warlocks can deal obscene amounts of damage with as little as 5-6 mana and no board presence with the help of Power Overwhelming and Soulfire.  Paladins and Shamans have the ability to give a Blessing of Might/Rockbiter Weapon, respectively, for 9-12 points of damage with little mana.  Yes, there is a “drawback” in that the opponent gets a couple of whelps but, if the opposing Hero is dead after Leeroy attacks, who cares?

This is another card that is going to rank highly, regardless of the metagame.  However, I’ve been seeing less and less Warlock Giant decks and Druid Ancient Watcher decks, making this card even more of a game ending threat.  Even then, Leeroy gives a cheap way to get rid of big taunt minions as well, so I’d still be happy to see ol’ Leeroy in those situations.

(This #3 ranking is really for “Nat Pagle when my opponents play it.”  For “Nat Pagle when Shoctologist plays it,” you’ll have to ask for the full rankings and scroll to the very bottom, right next to “RNG”.)

Some have Nat Pagle at the very top of their rankings and I can’t say I fully disagree with them.  Nat Pagle is an excellent card that isn’t “in your face” powerful; it’s more subtle than that.  Less experienced players simply don’t get why a 0/4 that may draw you a card is all that good; I can tell you, though, from my years of Magic: the Gathering experience, the ability to gain additional cards for no additional mana investment is a huge deal.  When you’re playing a control deck, you’re fighting for resource advantage; Nat Pagle allows you to simply drop it on the table and let him reel you in some additional resources for no additional mana or resource investment.

This means that as the game goes on, if Nat Pagle lives, you get to spend all of your mana efficiently every turn fighting your opponent’s actions.  Then, you pass the turn and wait to hear “Ha! Caught one!” signifying that Nat’s providing you with additional (free!) resources to continue fighting the good fight.  Leeroy is powerful because it fits in with aggro gameplans (deal enough damage, quickly, to kill the opponent); Nat Pagle is powerful for the exact same reason.  It fits control and midrange gameplans: out-resourcing the opponent.

If you notice my list of top decks right now, only two of them would be classified as “aggro”; the rest of them will end up being resource fights if you’re also playing a midrange or control deck.  Nat Pagle isn’t as good against Hunter or Warrior Aggro, so if those decks become huge portions of the metagame around your rank, Nat Pagle does drop somewhat.  For now, though, I think it’s correctly placed at #3.

How many times have you resolved a Ragnaros or Ysera against a Druid and thought, “Yaus! There’s no way this Druid can interact with m… Wait, @#&% Tinkmaster.  Oh yeah, of course it’s a 1/1…”

I actually opened a Tinkmaster in one of my first Arena award packs, looked at it, and disenchanted it.  “This seems terrible… Why would I want to do that?!”

However, when you notice that it transforms the minion, regardless of size, stats, or buffs, into a generic minion, you start understanding its power.  Basically, this is, at worst, a “silence” that turns a big minion into a 5/5 textless beater.  At best, it’s a “Your Ysera is as cute as a squirrel…literally” card.  While it does suck when RNG gives your opponent a 5/5 from Tinkmaster, if you play with it correctly, that 5/5 is better than the minion you targeted.  I’d much rather my opponent have a Devilsaur than a Ragnaros or Cairne Bloodhoof (followed by a Baine Bloodhoof).

If you’re going to play a slower, more controlling or midrange deck, this should be one of your first legendaries you craft. Even though Nat Pagle is stronger right now, I’d say that Tinkmaster should be the second legendary you craft (after Ragnaros) when you want to play a deck other than aggro.  The reason for this is that, if you’re playing a deck that aims to out-resource your opponent, you’re basically playing in a way that pushes the game into the late-game every single game.  That means that, when you play other slower decks, you’re both going to see a large portion of their deck and they’re going to have the mana to cast everything in their deck.

This also means that you’re going to see the most powerful thing that your opponent has in their deck every single time you play a quasi-mirror match.

I don’t know about you, but in those situations, I definitely want an ace up my sleeve.  If I see Warrior Control every round as a Druid, I definitely want something to answer Ysera (an otherwise impossible minion to beat as a Druid).  Ditto for almost everything in this list (and tomorrow’s list).

Against aggro, Tinkmaster isn’t as good, but it’s not terrible. When I was working on Legend this season with my Warlock Aggro deck, I had a situation against a Druid where I played a Doomguard and then followed that up by a Defender of Argus to make it a 6/8 taunt.  My opponent’s Tinkmaster turned it into a 1/1 Squirrel the next turn; but even as a 5/5 Devilsaur (without taunt), it would have been a more manageable threat.  If the metagame becomes mainly aggro, though, I can see Tinkmaster falling (similar to Nat Pagle).

Rounding out the top five is what I consider the most flexible and useful legendary in the game right now: Bloodmage Thalnos.  While nothing about Bloodmage Thalnos screams “POWER INCARNATE,” it is great at what it does – being a card that makes the rest of your deck better.  It’s the Lebron James/Chris Paul of Hearthstone.

Your spells all do more for the same cost and you get to dig through your deck faster.  It’s cheap enough to enable turns where you both play Bloodmage Thalnos and a spell that otherwise wouldn’t have been sufficient (I’m looking at you, Swipe.) to clear the board.

It’s never going to win the game on its own (and as such, scored low on “Power Level” in my rating scale), but it’s incredibly flexible and incredibly viable in any metagame.  Don’t think of this card as a legendary in the typical sense of the word (in that, it’s the stuff of legend, a powerful being that has no equal) but rather part of the glue that holds decks together.

You’re never happy to spend 1600 dust on a card that feels like it should just be a regular minion, but, once you do, you’re going to like the fact that you can click on “Bloodmage Thalnos” every single time you put a deck together.  The initial investment hurts, but within a day or two you’re going to forget about what you spent on it and having access to the card will be nice in the long run.  This is much less of an instant gratification card; it’s one where the benefits of crafting it will be seen over time.

There’s nothing special about the metagame that makes Bloodmage Thalnos better or worse, and that’s kind of the point. It’s a Swiss Army Knife minion that plays like a great point guard in basketball; it just makes everyone around it better.

The Rest of the Top 10

While nothing in the top 10 really screams out “Surprise!”, Old Murk-Eye might raise an old murk-eyebrow or two.  Murlocs have really been showing up at higher ranks lately and, even though it requires a little bit more to make it work, Old Murk-Eye is essentially Leeroy Jenkins #2 with less raw power, no downside, and more potential damage (in addition to higher synergy).  The murky one scored as low as possible on flexibility, but incredibly high on power level.  This is probably as high as Murk-Eye will ever get, as Murlocs are really high right now in terms of playability, but it deserves its top ten slot.

You’ll also notice Sylvanas barely cracking the top ten (and being below Cairne). Since the nerf, people have realized that getting a guaranteed 4/5 out of your six mana minion’s Deathrattle ability is better in midrange decks than making combat weird for opponents (while maybe getting a minion out of it).  The thing is, in midrange decks, you want to be keeping the board relatively clear and Sylvanas wants to have a board state where the opponent can’t cleanly deal with her (without giving you a creature).  The stats before (5/5 for five) were good enough to make her a decent minion regardless of the Deathrattle, but now, Cairne is just a better six mana investment.

Agree with my rankings?  Disagree vehemently?  Wondering why Millhouse Manastorm isn’t #1?  Join in the fun in the comments! I respond to as many comments as possible, so feel free to jump in and tell me how wrong/right I am!

Follow me on Twitter to get updates on when future articles come out (and insight from a Legend ranked player) and tune in tomorrow when I compare class-specific legendaries against each other.

Til we meet again on the tabletops of Azeroth,
Shoctologist

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Ranking Methodology

I tend to overdo things. Whenever I’m given a task, I usually try to get it done to the best of my ability.  Additionally, I’m a huge numbers guy. I’m currently in school in order to eventually get a degree in physics, specifically quantum, particle, and/or theoretical physics.  Numbers fascinate me. It’s not the numbers themselves, but rather the story the numbers tell.  I love punching in equations, calculations, algorithms, etc. and letting the computer solve complex problems just to study the numbers that come out.

That’s what I did with this ranking.

I assigned four total metrics by which I wanted to measure each legendary and gave ratings for each legendary; then, I weighted each metric by what I deemed to be of importance.  The three measurements I used were:

Power Level

Metagame Presence and Viability

Flexibility

Power Level

This one is the most subjective of the four metrics; how “powerful” is a card.  For this category, I’m looking at cards in the abstract, not necessarily in context of the current format.  Basically, if played, how much would this card progress you towards winning the game when compared to cards that cost as much as this card?

Metagame Presence and Viability

My metagame measurement is simple: “Is this card seeing play and should it be?”  For example: Are there a ton of Giant decks?  Then, obviously, we need some Black Knight in our lives (and decks).

Warrior decks running rampant?  Shamans suddenly starting to run Doomhammer? We’re obviously going to need some ways to clear out weapons. (Though, admittedly, I still wouldn’t run Harrison to fight Gorehowl; work with me here.)

Format is full of Warlock Aggro decks?  Millhouse Manastorm becomes a much better option, since the only spell that effectively clears out a Manastorm already costs zero for Warlocks and a 4/4 on turn one or two is incredibly effective against Warlocks.

Certain cards are going to get high marks here regardless of the metagame.  Think Tinkmaster Overspark and Nat Pagle.

Flexibility

This is where cards like Tinkmaster Overspark, Nat Pagle, and Bloodmage Thalnos are truly going to shine and a card like Old Murk-Eye is going to drop.  “How many decks can this legendary be played in and still improve the deck it’s being played in?”

It’s that simple.  Tinkmaster goes in everything these days; Old Murk-Eye has exactly one deck it belongs in.

Sound off in the comments!